The FYBA Junior PeeWee team took home the 12U Championship at FYBA’s own FYBA Hoop Challenge tournament, held on Sunday March 11 at Hayfield High School. The team, made up of 9, 10 and 11 year olds from the FYBA youth program, started the four game championship run with a tough win against the JELEFF Eagles. Chandler Tran and Kai Nafarrete led the team with tough defense and pinpoint outside shooting. The next game in pool play came against the vaunted YELLOWJACKETS from Front Royal, VA. Despite a size advantage, the JR PeeWees relied on tremendous inside play from Aidan and Gerard Moreno, and tough on-ball defense from Tahj Summey to secure a 10 point win. Next came the SWARM from West Virginia. After a hard fought game, the Jr PeeWees lost decisively to a fast and very disciplined team. Despite the loss, the Jr PeeWees secured a spot in the Championship Game against the SWARM. The championship game started off 12 to 0 in favor of the SWARM. Showing grit, determination and heart, the Jr PeeWees chipped away at the SWARM and closed the gap to 5 by halftime. In the second half, the SWARM sped out to a 12 point lead once again by the end of the 3rd quarter. The Jr PeeWees refused to give up, using patient offense and tough man on man defense, the team closed the lead to 5 with 17 seconds to play. After a timely steal, Ethan Roa nailed a 3 pointer from the corner. Then with 5 seconds left to pay, Alexandre Guillaud intercepted a pass under the basket and laid it up with 1.3 seconds left to send the game into overtime! In overtime, Kris Fabi got his own rebound on a shot and laid it in for the winning basket! It was truly a miraculous win, but a testament to the Jr PeeWee’s “Never Give Up” attitude!
The Jr PeeWee team will represent FYBA at the Labor Day NABA tournament this year. The official roster is listed below, guest players (who played in this tournament) are listed below with asterisks.
- Kai Nafarrete
- KrisFabi
- Ethan Roa
- Aidan
- Tahj Summey
- Gerard Moreno
- Troy Barbour
- Chandler Tran
- AJ Limpin
- Anthony Rivera
- Andrew Singson
- Aurea
- Ryan Casapao
- Alexandre Guillaud*
- Ben To*
- Abbinor Chapman*
